The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 7.28% of the light-duty vehicles registered in the 50 states and the District of Columbia run on pure electricity or an electric boost provided by their traditional combustion engines. 16 states beat that average. The places with the highest proportion of electric/hybrid cars are the District of Columbia (14.83%), California (13.04%), and Washington (10.69%).
South Dakota has the fourth-lowest proportion of electric/hybrid vehicles, just 3.12%. The only states with lower proportions of zappy cars are our neighbors Wyoming (2.74%) and North Dakota (2.57%) and our too-often statistical neighbor Mississippi (2.70%).
You might grumble that the cold keeps us from adopting electrical propulsion, and it is true that all 16 of the states beating the national average have higher annual average temperatures than South Dakota’s 47.3°F. But our parka’d neighbors in Minnesota average only 45.6°F through the year and still manage to be the median adopter, with 5.79% of their cars running wholly or partially on electricity. New Hampshire, Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, Montana, Idaho, and Alaska (26.6°F!) also have colder annual average temperatures yet higher rates of electric/hybrid vehicle adoption.
Winter is coming, but don’t let those chill north winds stop you from doing your patriotic part to fight high gas prices and global warming: get an electric car!
I love my electric car. Its fun to drive by the gas station and not worry about what the price is. We took a road trip a couple months ago with our EV to Minnesota, I spent $45 on the entire trip for charging. We took a trip last weekend to the hills with our pilot, $70 each time * 3 fill ups. The problem with EV here is the charging infrastructure.
If SD was what it often claims to be, a Scandinavian state, you might have a chance to improve. Electric cars account for 97.94% of new passenger car registrations in Norway from January through September 2026.
German Americans must still love the smell of burnt carbon from the Olde Country.
I drive an EV. The EV charging network in SD is terrible.
I have a plug-in HEV. Perfect for total gasless around town, and rotating gas – electric on long trips. There is nothing better.
Jukka Kukkonen who founded Shift2Electric and started MN EV Owners is originally from Finland. Jukka is a former engineer for Ford Europe and returns to Finland often from Minnesota. He has stated often in MN EV owner zoom meetings that Finland has a high adoption rate of EVs despite their winters in the High North where their winters are colder and longer than the Dakotas and Minnesota. MN EV owners is one of many great online resources, have Zoom meetings with industry updates by Jukka and guests, EV meetups and have an annual presence at the Minnesota State Fair staffed by MN EV Owners volunteers.
Credit should be given to the Walz administration in Minnesota along with various advocacy groups such as MN EV owners, Fresh Energy, public health related, a rural greater western Minnesota Ford Dealer/owner, legislators and MN citizens for helping push for the MN Clean Car Standards. The MN Clean Car Standards helped build the statewide charging infrastructure Minnesota has today and created the base to build momentum from. It also helped provide incentives for dealers to transition. The MN Clean Car Standards helped build the resilience for what we are dealing with today regarding the War of Choice with Iran resulting in the global disruption of petroleum based products. Along with others I testified before the MN State Senate Transportation Committee and also wrote an Administrative Law Judge in favor of the MN Clean Car Standards. https://mn.gov/governor/newsroom/press-releases/?id=1055-491262#:~:text=The%20policy%20will%20implement%20two,pollutants%20for%20sale%20in%20Minnesota.
Litchfield, MN a population of about 7,000 and the Meeker County Seat has a number of ZEF public EV chargers that are used often. Several are located conveniently in the downtown area with 3 or 4 at beautiful Central Park with the Litchfield Grand Army of The Republic Civil War Museum and Litchfield Public Library facing the Park and historic downtown shopping and eating establishments nearby. The other downtown location is in the Historic Restored Litchfield Opera House and nearby City Hall parking lot and the other ZEF Public Charger at Lake Ripley City Park and park walking trail around the lake and city owned campground. This all was possible by forward and practical thinking elected city officials knowing those EV owners help generate a portion of revenue for the city at these charging stations and have a great opportunity to explore and spend money in Litchfield.
with all the hoopla about data centers and electric rates around here, we aren’t even sure we’ll be able to keep the lights on.
Already we are on a time-of-use electric rate plan which has me doing my laundry in the middle of the night (getting up at 3 AM to put the wash in the dryer before 7 AM when the rates triple.)
and using the AC units only from 10 AM to 4 PM in the summer, and the dehumidifier in the basement is on a timer from 9 PM to 7 AM, and now they are switching to another system to avoid “stacking” of electrical use which will have me unplugging the de-icing cables on the roof before I can use the oven or wash the dishes I suppose. We’ll probably have to turn off the TV while the pizza is baking, or not use the hair dryer at the same time as the heat lamp, or not use the dehumidifier in the basement at the same time as the washing machine . And never use the toaster and the microwave at the same time.
We used to have to do things like that to avoid overloading circuits and blowing fuses, but we got the house rewired because that was old.
And now everything old is new again as the song goes, and we will be telling each other “no you can’t take a shower; I need to iron my shirt.”
All because there is too much demand on the grid
None of these instructions from our electric coop are inspiring confidence in the future of electric vehicles
In horrible red states like South Dakota where six months winters are the norm and Earth haters like Larry Rhoden have their heads buried in Herr Trump’s colon EVs are a challenge, for sure.
Algebra, I suggest installing solar panels or a windmill, just like our ancestors did.
Algebra One area of rapid growth has been solar panels for homeowners to help offset costs from being on the electrical grid. The efficiency of solar panels have increased quite a bit with costs going down. With the costs of batteries going down and those efficiencies going up some home owners are adding those to their home energy system reducing their reliance from their electrical grid, used as a back up in case of power outage or going completely off the grid. Imagine powering your EV, having it pre-conditioned so the battery thermal management system optimizes charging and efficiency plus the cabin HVAC system has a comfortable temperature prior to departure especially in extreme weather conditions.
Even residents who live in apartments may be able to take advantage of portable solar panels if they have a deck or placed inside by a window hooked up to a portable power station to help offset their electricity costs. There are ways to help with energy independence.
Two of my mother’s younger brothers all originally from Mitchell one living in rural Iowa had a few years ago solar panels installed on his and my aunt’s home. Solar drastically reduced electrical and heating costs which they rave about! Another uncle who had a super energy efficient house built just outside Mitchell city limits just had geothermal installed two weeks ago and is about to add solar panel system. His propane tank was hauled away. Reliance on his local grid will most likely be minimal. He drives a hybrid though not sure if it is a plug in hybrid.
There are some homes here that take advantage of geothermal energy. One farmer has a geothermal underground garden with exotic fruit and vegetables all year round. Keep us informed Miranda, thank you for sharing.
Unfortunately, the Trump administration is cutting money already allocated for clean energy for S.D.
They expect us to pay high prices for gas whether we want to or not. No alternatives. How controlling.
VM, there is not enough sunlight in South Dakota to keep the solar garden lights charged; I have many of them. They only stay lit about 2-3 hours. I was really bummed to see they were all dim by 9 pm last night.
We had a solar powered internet thing set up for a while, not a tree anywhere near it, it usually ran out of power around midnight. If the weather was overcast, it could be out for days.
Windmills are hilarious: they don’t work if there’s no wind, that makes sense, but if the wind is too strong they shut themselves off. And you need electricity to keep them warm in the winter? Really? We looked into getting one. The more we learned the crazier they sounded, so we didn’t get one.
I honestly suspect the Coop’s switch from time-of-use, to a three part plan with a “demand” charge based on our highest 15 minute peak usage period in the billing cycle, may be the result of too many people running dishwashers and doing laundry at the same time.
So that 15 minutes we are baking a pizza at the same time someone is using a hair dryer is going to be expensive.
Telling us we should all be getting EVs when the coop is telling us the grid is not able to meet demand is pretty silly.
“If the weather was overcast, it could be out for days.”
This is a myth and you are lying. Solar panels still work on cloudy days, albeit with efficiency down to about 25%.
Tell is another healthcare anecdote, idiot.
Just plain ignorance about clean energy. The rest of the world will stay lit while we suffer in darkness.
How do you think the world survived before gas?